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By Akinwande Soji-Ojo
Justice Maureen Onyekenu of the Federal High Court, Osogbo, Osun State on Monday, December 17, 2018 sentenced a former lecturer at Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU), Richard Akindele to two years in prison for demanding sex for marks from a student, Monica Osagie.
Justice Maureen Onyekenu delivered the judgement after Mr Akindele changed his plea from not guilty to guilty.
The trial judge ordered that the lecturer should serve his sentence in Ilesa prison due to the magnitude of the offence he committed “which is prevalent in the country.”
Mrs Onyekenu had earlier rejected a suspended sentence and plea bargain which the defendant’s counsel, Francis Omotosho, had pleaded for, noting that suspended sentence and plea bargain should be premised on public interest.
She decried the gravity of the offence the convict committed, adding that someone must be used “as a scapegoat without letting the issue of sexual harassment in tertiary institutions continue like that.
Mr Omotosho had earlier pleaded with the court to temper justice with mercy in sentencing his client.
The lecturer was first arraigned before Justice Maureen Onyetenu on November 19 by the ICPC on four counts of alteration of age and demanding sex to pass his student